Prepare the rhubarb:You will need 3-4 good sized rhubarb stalks for the cake.

Clean the rhubarb stalks and remove excess 'skin', then cut into inch long pieces.

Place in sauce pan with approx 2-3 tablespoons of water and 2 tablespoons of demerara sugar.

Bring gentle to the boil and leave to simmer for approx 5mins. The rhubarb should be soft to touch but not falling apart.

Cool and drain the liquid from the pan. The rhubarb is now ready to use.

Using a 24cm round (or similar size square) baking tray, fill with half the cake mixture, next arrange a layer of the prepared rhubarb and sprinkle half the demerara sugar and cinnamon over, then using the remaining cake mixture, cover and repeat with rhubarb, cinnamon and sugar on the top. (A light sprinkle of almonds is a lovely add-on too). Bake on middle shelf in oven for approx 45min at 180 degree Celsius. Be aware that it may be quite gooey in the middle because of the rhubarb so test a few places, a skewer should come out almost clean!

A light sprinkle of icing sugar prior to serving also works beautifully!. Enjoy....

Danish Rhubarb Snitter:

This biscuit type cake is usually made with raspberry jam and is 'world famous' in Denmark. Every baker in Denmark will sell these and for a good reason too...utterly yummy and irresistible.

Biscuit dough:

200 g plain flour

50 g ground almonds

25 g icing sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

½ real vanilla stick or vanilla sugar

150 g butter

1 egg yolk

Rhubarb jam:

300 g rhubarb

150 g jam sugar (with pectin)

1 tablespoon water

½ real vanilla stick or vanilla sugar

Icing:

2½ dl icing sugar

1 teaspoon soft butter

Juice of 1 lemon.

Topping:

You can either choose freeze dried raspberries (for the raspberry version or usually they are made with colourful 100's & 1000's sprinkles. For the rhubarb version, liquorice powder sprinkled on top is delicious. You would need 1-2 tablespoons for this recipe.

How to make the rhubarb jam:

Clean the rhubarb stalks and remove excess 'skin', then cut into small pieces.

Place in sauce pan with the jam sugar and water. Add the vanilla.

Bring gentle to the boil and leave to simmer and go soft for approx 5mins. Then leave to boil for another 5-10 mins until thickening, Remove from the heat and leave to cool down completely. Once the jam is beginning to cool down, you can place it in the fridge.

Once cooled down completely, the rhubarb is now ready to use

How to make:

Mix plain flour, ground almonds, icing sugar and salt in a bowl. Next then either add the vanilla sugar or the inner vanilla seeds to this mixture.

Add the butter, already cut into small squares into the mixture and blend into the flour with your fingers until it resembles fine soft slightly wet sand.

Add the egg yolk and gather the mixture into a ball without over kneeding it.

Wrap in cling film and leave in fridge for approx 30 mins. Now have a cup of tea.....

Remove from the fridge and split into 2 equal pieces.

Roll out one half into a square piece approx 4mm thick and place on a baking sheet.

Repeat for the other half so that the 2 pieces are approx equal sizes and will fit on top of each other nicely.

Bake just one half for 5mins at 190 degrees celcius. It is ready when it is slightly crusty on top.

Remove from the oven and spread the rhubarb jam evenly over the top. Now place the second half on top and piece with a fork all over.

Return to the oven and now bake for a further 15-20mins at 190c till it crusty and lightly golden on top.

Leave to cool for bit and once it has cooled down to be luke warm to touch, make your icing by mixing soft butter into the icing sugar, then add lemon juice 9 (bit at a time) until the icing has a nice thick consistency but still spreadable, decorate the top of the biscuit with it.

It is perfect time for you to shop our eco-chic range of tableware, fabric runners & decorations from Pipii as we welcome May and look ahead to a lovely long Bank Holiday weekend, the weather is looking promising - with sunshine and warmer temperatures. Perfect for outdoor entertaining or a trip to the park, beach or a picnic amongst the bluebells.

Why shouldn’t Easter be celebrated with a special treat, just as we have plenty of treats for Christmas. Make this cake once and serve it for friends and family this Easter, and I am sure that this will become an Easter must for years to come, as it is here.

This cake is not only beautiful to look at; decorated with little chocolate eggs, but is also an equally delicious chocolately treat to indulge in, enjoy!

Chocolate Easter Cake Ingredients

125g dark chocolate (min 70%)

50g butter

250g of sugar

2 large free range/organic eggs

150g plain flour

Chocolate Ganache

100g melted dark chocolate

200ml of whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla sugar

Decorations

Colourful chocolate eggs

To make Chocolate Easter Cake

Preheat the oven to 175°C, Butter an 18cm round tin

Carefully melt the chocolate in the microwave or traditionally; by breaking up the chocolate and placing in a bowl placed into a pot of hot simmering water, let the butter melt into the chocolate – ensure that no water gets into the chocolate.

Mix the eggs well with the sugar, add the flour. Carefully add the chocolate mixture.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, transfer to a hot oven and leave to bake for ca. 20-25 minutes or until it fells spongy on top.

Leave to cool before removing from the tin.

Just before serving the cake:

Carefully remove the cake from the tin and place on a plate or decorative platter.

Chop the chocolate for the ganache, carefully melt the chocolate in the microwave or as above. Mix 100ml of cream into the melted chocolate.

Whip the remaining of the cream and fold into the cooled chocolate mixture (leave to cool for ca. 10 minutes)

Spread onto the chocolate cake and sprinkle with chocolate eggs

Suggestions

You can use the above recipe to make a delicious chocolate pudding, replace the chocolate eggs and scatter with raspberries or perhaps add 2 table spoons of Cointreau to the chocolate ganache and the peel of an organic orange to the cake mixture for an extraordinary desert.

Easter Eggs & Bunnies for your Easter party.

We love these classic papier mache Easter eggs, they open up and allow you to put
anything you wish inside. Not everyone loves chocolate including myself
but fill this with jelly beans and I'm a happy bunny.
But they also allow you to place a little gift, a written promise ...could be 'bake you a cake', or simply 'a walk in the woods' to more elaborate things...either way, both the eggs and the content will no doubt bring joy. The eggs of course also keep for years.

Mother's day is definitely a day for treats and we have plenty of these to share from the Pipii recipe archive

Take a look at the Quick & Easy Gingerbread Loaf, perfect to share.

Or the Blueberry Muffins with Crumble toppingSet a pretty tea time table mixing beautifully pieces of china (which sadly never really gets 'airtime' in our house) for Mother's day - I love filling them with flowers and mixing it all up... pretty paper plates, cups, napkins, doilies and best of all, homebake..its easy to do and very hard to beat!!

and if you really want to go to town...create a Alison in Wonderland teatime extravaganza...so much fun :-)

Be creative with a little gift or 2, make up little notes with lovely promises...simple things like '...Your favourite dinner cooked', '...scones baked on a cold day'or 'I will do the washing up tomorrow' are my absolute favourite and are always sure to please.
Place them inside boxes and decorate with twine, stickers, stamps or tape.
A perfect Mother's day gift!!

Here at Pipii we ♥ to make the most of any given occasion hence Valentines dayis yet another one you can have a bit of fun with.Share it with all your loved ones in all sort of weird & wonderful ways... Decorate the house, get crafting, bake or cook a special treat & meal andmost importantly, just have a lovely day together ♥

Deck the halls in garlands, banners and honeycomb balls, bells or hearts....

An all time Christmas tradition....Once you smell freshly baked gingerbread you know that Christmas is not far behind.

Gingerbread last well and are perfect fun to make with the kids using cutters in all sort of shapes, leave a small hole at the top and hang some on your tree. Or use to create your very own gingerbread house, an all time favourite Christmas baking activity at our house as seen here...we get creative with icing sugar, ripple chocolate bars, chocolate buttons and what doesn't go on the house...
well, have a guess?!

or a Scandinavian recipe with honey. This is softer but still perfect for both house & biscuits. All the bakeries in Denmark and Germany make and sell these; these soft and delicious tasting hearts are mostly decorated with a thin coat of dark chocolate and decorated with a vintage decoupage image of Father Christmas or Angels and your loved ones name written in white icing. If you have ever visited a Christmas market in Northern Europe you are bound to have come across these beautiful hearts at the many Christmas stalls.

We also stock a great selection of Christmas cookie cutters at Pipii for biscuits like the ones below.

Have fun baking and making.Nicky x

This entry was posted in This season on 12th December 2017 by pipii_blog.

Create a wonderful Winter Woodland Scene with our fabulous woolly Christmas mice, perfect
stocking fillers for both young and old.
Choose one or all with a 20% discount for 2 days and with a 15% discount on many of our woodland themed products also, now is the time to build your winter village. Paper Pine Cone and Snowflake Paper Trees set amongst Toadstools and Bottle Brush Trees lightly sprinkled with Artificial Snow is a perfect scene setter and will keep for y/ears to become a Christmas tradition to build and add to.

Make sure that you are all set for the festive countdown. Create your own Advent Calendar, we have bags, tags, Advent stickers, envelopes & boxes perfect for creating your own DIY Calendar. Embrace the dark December days, light the Advent candle every morning or night. Make an advent wreath, we have the perfect wicker wreath, finish with candles, balance holders, dainty fair-trade baubles and beautiful greenery. Take inspiration from the feature in this months Country Living.

Natural Wicker display wreath with hooks and chain £17.50, just add a selection of baubles, candles and ribbon to create the look. Click here to create the look

This entry was posted in This season on 28th November 2017 by pipii_blog.